Published online : 18 January 2018.
Dynamic Cellular Maps of Molecular Species:
Application to Drug-Target Interactions.
García C1, Losada A2, Sacristán MA1, Martínez-Leal JF2, Galmarini CM2, Lillo MP3.
Author information:
1 - Departamento de Química Física Biológica, Instituto de Química-Física "Rocasolano" (CSIC), Madrid, Spain.
2 - Departamento de Biología Celular y Farmacogenómica, Pharma Mar S.A., Colmenar Viejo, Madrid, Spain.
3 - Departamento de Química Física Biológica, Instituto de Química-Física "Rocasolano" (CSIC), Madrid, Spain.
Abstract
The design of living cell studies aimed at deciphering the mechanism of action of drugs targeting proteins with multiple functions, expressed in a wide range of concentrations and cellular locations, is a real challenge.
We recently showed that the antitumor drug plitidepsin (APL) localizes sufficiently close to the elongation factor eEF1A2 so as to suggest the formation of drug-protein complexes in living cells.
Here we present an extension of our previous micro-spectroscopy study, that combines Generalized Polarization (GP) images, with the phasor approach and fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy (FLIM), using a 7-aminocoumarin drug analog (APL*) as fluorescence tracer.
Using the proposed methodology, we were able to follow in real time the formation and relative distribution of two sets of APL-target complexes in live cells, revealing two distinct patterns of behavior for HeLa-wt and APL resistant HeLa-APL-R cells.
The information obtained may complement and facilitate the design of new experiments and the global interpretation of the results obtained with other biochemical and cell biology methods, as well as possibly opening new avenues of study to decipher the mechanism of action of new drugs.